Cyprus – Northern (Kyrenia, Famagusta) Oct 13-15, 2021
Crossing the Cyprus-Northern Cyprus border was the usual Turkish nightmare. First stop and they scan your passport and check your vaccination status. Then stop at a second kiosk. If you have been on the Greek side for less than 10 days, you must return to a pharmacy on the Greek side and get a rapid Covid test. So I turned around – the first 3 pharmacies close on Wednesday after noon, so I kept going. The fourth pharmacy was open and I had a negative test (6 ), returned and then had to purchase Turkish car insurance – 3 days for 20 (actually 2 days and 18 hours as it starts at noon and I was there at 6 pm).
The road passes through a fenced area with barbed wire on top and completely bombed-out houses – no windows, crumbling cement, and unchecked plant growth. After a couple of km, a few lived-in houses appear on the left and then progressively more. Google maps directed me to a right turn into a military check post that I couldn’t pass and then repetitively into the centre of Maras via a street that looked like it never existed. If you keep right, everything sits behind a fence and is bombed out. I eventually got some instructions and put in Palm Beach, the most northerly area that sits on the water just past Maras. There is a big hotel there, the Kanir Palm Beach Hotel. I went in and enquired about the prices. Booking.com said 121 was the best price but they would give me a room for 80. Reviews were not good – cockroaches, smelly mini-bar, dirty carpet, but the lobby and bottom of the hotel looked very nice.
I walked through the hotel to the beach, full of lounge chairs and umbrellas, and walked past 2 bars and three bombed-out hotels to where Maras starts with a fence that runs into the water. There are a couple of bars and more lounge chairs that appear public. This is where I decided I would sleep for the night. Access is via a dark lane south of the hotel.
I returned to the car and dinner, wrote this, and returned to the beach at 9 pm, armed with my pad, sleep sheet, pillowcase, and sleeping bag.
Varosha (ghost town) (Maras). An abandoned southern quarter of Famagusta. Before 1974, it was a modern tourist area of the city. Its inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 when the city came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. As of 2021, the buildings have decayed, contents looted, streets overgrown with vegetation. Part is open to visitors. In the NM Bizzarium series.
Read “The World Without Us” for a good description of Maras. It is comparable to other parts of the world that have not seen human activity for 5 or more decades – the DMZ between the Koreas and Chenoble, Ukraine.
Day 2
FAMAGUSTA/AM MOCHOSTOS (Gazimagusa)
Southeast Bastion Lighthouse. This lighthouse sits on the bastion of Othello Castle.
Othello Castle. The walls of this castle surround the entire town of Gazimagusa, some with a large dry moat.
Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque (old St. Nicholas Cathedral).
KARPAS PENINSULA
İskele District M@P. Drive through this district centered on the town of Trikomo at the beginning of the peninsula.
Karpasia NP. This covers the outer half of the peninsula. There are some great sand beaches on the bottom half.
Malibu Beach. A small beach between a long headland and a constructed pier. Fronted by the Malibu Beach Hotel
Apostolos Andreas Monastery, Dipkarpaz. Near the tip of the peninsula, and a long drive (the last 19 km over a narrow road with monstrous potholes and many donkeys who refuse to move for anyone), I missed the church as it is under one of the closed buildings that fronts the square. It is a typical Greek Cyrpriot Orthodox church but with a huge iconostasis – 2 rows of 16 and one row of 8 icons all in an ornately carved wood screen. The highlight may be the “throne” of very intricately carved wood with a “roof” with a bird on top. Free
The donkeys are very aggressive in the square – keep your window rolled up as they put their head right in your car. Of course, all the tourists (there were 3 buses here when I was here) feed the donkeys. Many knick-knack stands line the walk down to the church.
I then continued my drive around the north coast.
Bellapais Abbey, Beylerbeyi. is the ruin of a monastery built by Canons Regular in the 13th century on the northern side of the small village of Bellapais, about five kilometres from the town of Kyrenia. The ruin is at an altitude of 220 m above sea level, and commands a long view down to Kyrenia and the Mediterranean sea.
The site is also a museum, which hosts a restaurant and a cafe. The Abbey’s refectory now serves as a venue for concerts and lectures. In early summer it is also a venue for a local music festival.
History. The first occupants known to have settled on or near the site were the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, who had fled Jerusalem after its fall in 1187 to Saladin. The canons had been the custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Aimery de Lusignan founded the monastery, with the first buildings dating to between 1198–1205. The common explanation of the modern name Bellapais is that the French name Abbaie de la Pais (“Abbey of Peace”) was corrupted after the Italian takeover into “Bellapais”,
The main building as it can be seen today was built during the rule of King Hugh III 1267–1284. The cloisters and the refectory were constructed during the rule of King Hugh IV between 1324–1359. Hugh IV lived in the abbey.
In 1373, the Genoese raided Kyrenia, almost destroying Kyrenia Castle. The Genoese stripped Bellapais of anything that was portable and of any value.
By 1489 the Venetians had taken control of Cyprus. By the time of the Venetians, the inhabitants of the Abbey had abandoned the Premonstratensian Rule. Canons took wives, and then to keep the business within the family, accepted only their children as novices.
Following the Ottoman conquest of Kyrenia and Kyrenia Castle in 1571, the Ottomans expelled the Premonstratensians and gave the abbey to the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, which they appointed as the only legal Christian church on Cyprus. The Church of Cyprus neglected the Abbey, which fell into disrepair.
During the period of British control of Cyprus (1878-1960), the British Army initially took control of Bellapais. In 1878 they cemented the floor of the refectory, which they then used as a hospital. Unfortunately, the soldiers also fired off small arms in the refectory; one may still see bullet holes in the east wall.
The abbey consists of a church and a cloister, with most of the monastic buildings surrounding the cloister.
The church, which dates to the 13th century, itself borders the courtyard and is the best-preserved part of the complex. The Italian murals on the facade may date to the 15th century. The church has a flat roof and a belfry, with only one surviving bell, above the entrance. The church consists of a nave with two side aisles, a choir, and a sacristy. The surviving decorations include an intricately carved pulpit, the bishop’s throne, five chandeliers, an ordinary iconostasis, and processis (in the front middle of the floor, it usually has an eagle and a snake at the bottom). It is possible that the graves of several Lusignan kings rest beneath the floor of the church. The forecourt leads to the cloister, which has 18 arches.
Refectory. The door’s lintel contains coats of arms of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and the Lusignans. The refectory is Gothic in design and is the finest room in the Abbey. It includes a pulpit that projects from the north wall, six windows on the north wall that illuminate the space, and a rose window on the eastern wall. The room is 30m long and 10m wide, with seven columns that extend from the side walls to support the roof. The six windows provide a lovely view across the countryside to the sea. The refectory also has a high vaulted ceiling. Concerts and recitals of classical music are held here about every 4 days in the fall. There is a stage with many chairs.
The chapter house is a ruin. The column in the center of the chapter house may have come from a Byzantine church.
Several stairs from the cloisters give access to the roof. 2€ + 1 parking.
GIRNE (pop 33,000)
Kyrenia Castle. The tower of Queen Alice de Champagne, built in 1208 has two levels with high arched ceilings and is the best Lusignan building to survive. It served as a British prison for Turkish Cypriots. There is an archaeology exhibit showing Vrysi, a neolithic settlement 10 km east of Girne. Another exhibit is of a ship dating from 300BC that had almonds and 25 millstones.
Walk around the round harbour with the West Mole Old Lighthouse, a circular rock column with no light.
Ataturk Statue. This great 3 m high bronze statue sits next to the malecon after the harbor. The inscription reads “Peace at home, Peace in the World”. It was placed her on his death in 1935.
He was described as “a genius as an international peacekeeper” by the League of Nations.
Day 3
Karmi (Karaman), A NM small town, it is 5 km west of Girne with a population of 55. It is hard to understand why it is listed in NM.
Saint Hilarion Castle lies on the Kyrenia mountain range above Girne. This location provided the castle with command of the pass road from Kyrenia to Nicosia. It is the best-preserved ruin of the three former strongholds in the Kyrenia mountains, the other two being Kantara and Buffavento.History. The castle is not named after St. Hilarion, active in Palestine and Cyprus in the 4th century.
It was named after an obscure saint, who is traditionally held to have fled to Cyprus after the Arab conquest of the Holy Land and retired to the hilltop on which the castle was built for the hermitage. An English traveler reported the preservation of his relics in the 14th century. Starting in the 11th century, the Byzantines began fortification. Saint Hilarion, together with the castles of Buffavento and Kantara, formed the defense of the island against Arab pirates raiding the coast. Some sections were further upgraded under the Lusignan dynasty, whose kings may have used it as a summer residence. During the rule of Lusignans, the castle was the focus of a four-year struggle between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Regent John d’ Ibelin for control of Cyprus. Much of the castle was dismantled by the Venetians in the 15th century to reduce the cost of garrisons.
The castle has three divisions or wards. The lower and middle wards served economic purposes, while the upper ward housed the royal family. The lower ward had the stables and the living quarters for the men-at-arms. The Prince John tower sits on a cliff high above the lower castle. The upper ward was surrounded by a 1.4 metre-thick Byzantine wall, made of rough masonry. The entrance is through a pointed arch protected by a semicircular tower to the east. To the north-east
is an extremely ruined kitchen. To the west are the royal apartments, dated by various sources to the 13th or 14th centuries. Although mostly ruined today, this was a structure in the northeast-southwest axis, with a length of 25 m and width of 6 m. It has a basement containing a cistern and two floors. The ground floor has a height of 7 m and a pointed barrel vault. The upper floor is known for its carved windows, one of which is dubbed the Queen’s Window. These are placed on the western wall, which has a scenic view of the northern coast of Cyprus, especially the plains of Lapithos.
Peace and Freedom Museum, Alsancak. This is not a museum per se, but a memorial to 70 Turkish Cypriots killed in 1974. Many have a story board lining the wall and their graves. A large stone monument sits at the back. On one side are a series of panels telling the Turkish story of Cyprus. Free
Day 3
Karmi (Karaman), A NM small town, it is 5 km west of Girne with a population of 55. It is hard to understand why it is listed in NM.
Saint Hilarion Castle lies on the Kyrenia mountain range above Girne. This location provided the castle with command of the pass road from Kyrenia to Nicosia. It is the best-preserved ruin of the three former strongholds in the Kyrenia mountains, the other two being Kantara and Buffavento.History. The castle is not named after St. Hilarion, active in Palestine and Cyprus in the 4th century.
It was named after an obscure saint, who is traditionally held to have fled to Cyprus after the Arab conquest of the Holy Land and retired to the hilltop on which the castle was built for a hermitage. An English traveler reported the preservation of his relics in the 14th century.
Starting in the 11th century, the Byzantines began fortification. Saint Hilarion, together with the castles of Buffavento and Kantara, formed the defense of the island against Arab pirates raiding the coast. Some sections were further upgraded under the Lusignan dynasty, whose kings may have used it as a summer residence. During the rule of Lusignans, the castle was the focus of a four-year struggle between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Regent John d’ Ibelin for control of Cyprus.
Much of the castle was dismantled by the Venetians in the 15th century to reduce the cost of garrisons.
The castle has three divisions or wards. The lower and middle wards served economic purposes,
while the upper ward housed the royal family. The lower ward had the stables and the living quarters for the men-at-arms. The Prince John tower sits on a cliff high above the lower castle. The upper ward was surrounded by a 1.4 meter-thick Byzantine wall, made of rough masonry.
The entrance is through a pointed arch protected by a semicircular tower to the east. To the northeast is an extremely ruined kitchen. To the west are the royal apartments, dated by various sources to the 13th or 14th centuries. Although mostly ruined today, this was a structure in the northeast-southwest axis, with a length of 25 m and width of 6 m. It has a basement containing a cistern and two floors.
The ground floor has a height of 7 m and a pointed barrel vault. The upper floor is known for its carved windows, one of which is dubbed the Queen’s Window. These are placed on the western wall, which has a scenic view of the northern coast of Cyprus, especially the plains of Lapithos.
Peace and Freedom Museum, Alsancak. This is not a museum per se, but a memorial to 70 Turkish Cypriots killed in 1974. Many have a storyboard lining the wall and their graves. A large stone monument sits at the back. On one side are a series of panels telling the Turkish story of Cyprus. Free
I started my drive around to the west side of northern Cyprus. I stopped at a small town for lunch and to recharge my computer. A Turkish man was there who lived in England for 16 years and we spent a long time talking. I even had a haircut.
Soli Ruins is an ancient Greek city located next to the town of Karavostasi, southwest of Morphou (Guzelyurt), and on the coast in the gulf of Morphou. Since 1974 the site has been under the de facto control of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
At its current location, the whole urban centre was designed by Solon during his 10-year trip, after whom the name Soloi is commonly attributed. Soloi was one of the ten city-kingdoms into which Cyprus was divided at the time.
What remains today is mainly from the Roman period, most notably the mosaic floor of the basilica with its wealth of birds, animals, and geometric designs, and a picture of a swan, all under a large roof. High above, there is a theatre but it has been renovated to the point that it no longer has any atmosphere of its original age.
A trio of ancient underground tombs has been discovered near Soli. The tombs were excavated in 2005 and 2006. Two of the tombs contained many findings, but the third tomb was empty as a result of looting. According to archaeologists, the findings indicate a high level of wealth and power. Some of the vessels found are similar to items typically produced in Athens. The artifacts are on display at the Museum of Archeology and Nature in Morphou.
According to ancient written sources the city was supplying Athens with timber and copper and in return getting luxurious metal vessels from there.
Northern Cyprus extreme west (Lefke, Gemikonagi). Sofi ruins lies between these two small towns. There are only small businesses lining the highway.
I crossed the border near here. Each border stop took less than 30 seconds each. No stamps
Kokkina/Erenköy (enclave). There is a dirt road below Mosfili that appears rarely used that gives access to the north end of Kokkina.
The highway climbs up through Mosfili allowing good views down to Kokkina, but there are no other roads and no houses. It appears that no one lives here.
Greek flags are on each hilltop above the enclave. Then pass a UN border post EB03 that sits high on the hill above Kokkina.
Akincilar (Louroujina, Turkish: Akıncılar, previously Lurucina or Luricina) is a village located within the salient that marks the southernmost extent of Northern Cyprus. It was one of the largest Turkish Cypriot villages in Cyprus before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In 1974, Louroujina was secured so as to be placed within a contiguous Turkish Cypriot zone, which later became Northern Cyprus. The United Nations Buffer Zone separates the Louroujina salient from the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. There is now a tunnel that has been designed to enter the village without going through any army points. The village is now open to everyone there are many historic untouched buildings in this village.
Prior to 1960, Louroujina’s population was Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots constituted a majority. The Greek Cypriots, who numbered about 100, fled the village during the Emergency years. By 1973, 1,963 Turkish Cypriots were living in Louroujina. After the Turkish invasion, the majority were relocated to nearby villages; however, about 300 opted to stay, in contravention of the authorities’ demand that they vacate the village. As of 2011, Louroujina had a population of 390.
According to legend, Louroujina is so named because it was founded by a woman named “Lorenziya”. In 1958, it was renamed Akıncılar in Turkish, meaning “raiders”. The new name is said to have been inspired by an inter-communal clash between Greek Cypriots and Louroujina Turkish Cypriots, who outnumbered the former, at Pyroi (Gaziler). In their flight, the Greek Cypriots shouted, “the Turkish Cypriots from Louroujina are flooding in”.